BUS306: Advertising and Promotion

Unit 3: Communication and Decision Making
*In this unit, you will learn about the dynamic communication process
between advertisers and consumers. We will examine both traditional
and nontraditional models of communication to see how today’s consumers
are more active in marketing communication. Giving consumers a degree of
control over the advertising message creates a much higher degree of
target market selectivity, but it also creates a more complex, two-sided
communications model for marketers.

In addition, you will learn how cultural influences and consumer
involvement affect buying behavior. Have you ever been shopping with
someone who just cannot make a decision? How about a shopper who
immediately finds what she wants and makes a quick purchasing decision?
A successful advertiser must know how to move consumers from one stage
of the decision-making process to the next, i.e., need recognition,
information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, and finally,
post–purchase evaluation. *

Unit 3 Time Advisory
Completing this unit should take approximately 10 hours.

☐ Subunit 3.1: 5 hours

☐ Subunit 3.2: 5 hours

Unit3 Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- identify different forms of advertising messages that businesses use
to reach their target markets; and
- describe the consumer decision-making process.

Instructions: Read Chapter 4 on pages 94-143. Then read O’Barr’s
review of social, ethical, and regulatory issues in advertising.
Have these issues, and the ways in which they are handled, changed
over the years?

Reading these selections should take you approximately 3 hours to
complete.

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attribution as requested by the work’s original creator or
licensee. Please respect the copyright and terms of use displayed on
the webpages above.

Instructions: Read O’Barr’s explanation of how consumers interpret
advertising messages. There are a number of graphic and video
components on this page that provide examples of communication
models through various media throughout history. Click on each of
the linked images to view them in order as you read the article.

Reading this selection should take you approximately 2 hours to
complete.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Instructions: Scroll down to number 3, and click on the third
reading assignment titled, “Matsuno, Note on Consumer Decision
Making Processes.” Read Matsuno’s paper, which presents the steps
in the consumer decision making process and the influences that
drive each step.

Reading this article should take you approximately 2 hours.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed on the webpage above.

Instructions: Read Chan and Botelho’s study of the link between
national culture and consumer decision-making. This article uses
Hofstede’s cultural dimensions to examine the buying behavior of
consumers in Brazil, Japan, and the United States.

Readin this article should take approximately 2 hours and 30
minutes to complete.
Terms of Use: Please respect the copyright and terms of use
displayed in the article above.

Instructions: Please complete the linked assessment. You must be
logged into your Saylor Foundation School account in order to access
this quiz. If you do not yet have an account, you will be able to
create one, free of charge, after clicking the link.